The first and only astrology that I am aware of who has as concerned himself with star clusters is Charles A. Jayne. Jayne points out that clusters of dozens and thousands of stars exist at various distances and directions from our Sun. These clusters cohere for hundreds of millions of years in most cases. Jayne goes on to point out that these star clusters are at least as deserving of our attention as the more familiar constellations, composed of stars (in most cases) at different distances and having no physical relationship with one another.

The reader should understand that single stars are not the rule, but very much the exception. Clusters of stars are the rule, and in fact clusters of almost all astrophysical objects are the rule. ALL OBJECTS IN SPACE SHOW A DECIDED PREFERENCE TOWARD GROUPS, CLUMPS AND CLUSTERS.

This tendency of stellar objects toward clustering helps to define the various planes of cosmic structure and the larger or more vast the distances we consider, the greater is this tendency of objects to clumps. In other words, galaxies show an even greater preference for clustering than do the stars!

The most obvious and gigantic cluster of stars is our galaxy itself. It is estimated that our galaxy contains some hundred billion stars. We will examine these vast clusters (galaxies) in a later section. Here we want to look at the various kinds of star clustering within our galaxy. There are two major cluster types: the Open or Galactic Cluster and the Globular Star Cluster. Each of these types shows a preference for different parts of the galaxy. The open clusters are groups of dozens or hundreds of stars that occur in the equatorial plane of the galaxy and seem to form the very backbone of our Milky Way. The globular clusters are systems of hundreds of thousands of stars packed tight in a globe or sphere and these great globes circle the galactic nucleus in highly inclined orbits. The globular clusters act as beacon lights to indicate the overall dimensions of our galaxy in all directions. Figure A illustrates both of these basic cluster, types.